LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said the Allahabad high court’s verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, expected to come later in September, could cause “extreme disturbances” in poll-bound Bihar and security arrangements must be heightened before the ruling came.
Apprehending political exploitation of the court’s verdict by Bihar’s ruling BJP, Mr Paswan asked the Nitish Kumar government to strongly tell the people that the government would not tolerate “any public action” that is for or against whatever spirit the court’s verdict contained.
“There could be extreme disturbances in Bihar from the court’s verdict in the already politically-charged atmosphere in the wake of the Assembly polls. My party demands deployment of Central security forces in Bihar during the time the court’s verdict comes so that the judicial decision could be prevented from being used in public for political gains,” said Mr Paswan to this newspaper in an interview. The LJP chief, who left for Delhi on Tuesday to take part in an iftar feast being organised at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence, is likely to bring up his demand there and seek the Centre’s “cooperation for ensuring communal peace in Bihar”.
“The Nitish Kumar government must strongly let Bihar’s people know that it would not tolerate any public action either for or against whatever spirit contained in the judicial verdict on this highly sensitive issue. Celebrating the verdict in public or opposing it in public could be used by the vested interests to spark communal tensions before the Assembly elections,” said Mr Paswan.
The BJP’s Bihar spokesperson and state vice-president Sanjay Mayukh, however, described Mr Paswan’s apprehensions as “too farfetched and very alarmist”.